The current investigation was carried out in the research laboratory of College of Medicine / University of Thiqar from Feb. - 2020 to end April - 2020. It was conducted to verify the changes of liver function test parameters in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Eighty five patients complained of rheumatoid arthritis and 43 sex and age matched healthy individual were enrolled. The effects of ESR values, the duration of the disease, the duration of treatment and the treatment with methotrexate on the parameters of liver function tests were examined. It was found several influences of these factors on the liver function tests of rheumatoid arthritis patients. The results suggested the implication of the relevant factors of rheumatoid arthritis in directing the liver function tests of patients afflicted with this disease.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was declared a pandemic by the WHO on 11 March 2020 and global surgical practice was compromised. This Commission aimed to document and reflect on the changes seen in the surgical environment during the pandemic, by reviewing colleagues' experiences and published evidence. In late 2020, BJS contacted colleagues across the global surgical community and asked them to describe how severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) had affected their practice. In addition to this, the Commission undertook a literature review on the impact of COVID-19 on surgery and perioperative care. A thematic analysis was performed to identify the issues most frequently encountered by the correspondents, as well as the solutions and ideas suggested to address them. BJS received communications for this Commission from leading clinicians and academics across a variety of surgical specialties in every inhabited continent. The responses from all over the world provided insights into multiple facets of surgical practice from a governmental level to individual clinical practice and training. The COVID-19 pandemic has uncovered a variety of problems in healthcare systems, including negative impacts on surgical practice. Global surgical multidisciplinary teams are working collaboratively to address research questions about the future of surgery in the post-COVID-19 era. The COVID-19 pandemic is severely damaging surgical training. The establishment of a multidisciplinary ethics committee should be encouraged at all surgical oncology centres. Innovative leadership and collaboration is vital in the post-COVID-19 era.
Since the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), various vaccines have been developed for emergency use. The efficacy of the initial vaccines based on the ancestral strain of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has become a point of contention due to the emergence of new variants of concern (VOCs). Therefore, continuous innovation of new vaccines is required to target upcoming VOCs. The receptor binding domain (RBD) of the virus spike (S) glycoprotein has been extensively used in vaccine development due to its role in host cell attachment and penetration. In this study, the RBDs of the Beta (β) and Delta (δ) variants were fused to the truncated Macrobrachium rosenbergii nodavirus capsid protein without the protruding domain (CΔ116-MrNV-CP). Immunization of BALB/c mice with the virus-like particles (VLPs) self-assembled from the recombinant CP showed that, with AddaVax as an adjuvant, a significantly high level of humoral response was elicited. Specifically, mice injected with equimolar of adjuvanted CΔ116-MrNV-CP fused with the RBD of the β- and δ-variants increased T helper (Th) cell production with a CD8+/CD4+ ratio of 0.42. This formulation also induced proliferation of macrophages and lymphocytes. Overall, this study demonstrated that the nodavirus truncated CP fused with the SARS-CoV-2 RBD has potential to be developed as a VLP-based COVID-19 vaccine.
Newcastle Disease is regarded as one of the most important disease of avian species and was listed as ‘A’ disease by the Office International des Epizooties (OIE). Studies have shown this disease infects more than 250 species of birds. The edible-nest swiftlet industry in Malaysia is on the rise for the last 10 years and swiftlet houses can be seen everywhere. This is due to the high price of edible bird nests at international market and high income generated by the farming of edible bird nest. Nevertheless, edible-nest swiftlet (Aerodramus fuciphagus) is can either be infected with or carrying the deadly Newcastle disease virus (NDV) which is a great threat to the poultry industry in this country. In Peninsular Malaysia, no study on this subject was reported so far in this swiflet species. In this study, 60 swiftlet carcasses were sampled. Post-mortem was conducted and lung and trachea tissues were collected. Tissue samples were tested for NDV using the reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Newcastle Disease Virus was not detected in any of the samples. Thus, it can be concluded that edible nest swiftlets (Aerodramus fuciphagus) ranched under oil palm plantation in this study are not infected with or carry NDV.
A very virulent infectious bursal disease virus (vvIBDV) strain (UPM0081) was inoculated orally in 4-week-old specific pathogen free (SPF) chickens. Control was included and these chickens were not inoculated with the virus. The chickens in both groups were sacrificed at various intervals and samples of bursa of Fabricius, caecal tonsils, liver, spleen and kidney were fixed in 10% buffered formalin, processed and embedded in wax. A digoxigenin-labeled probe was designed according to the sequence of VP2 gene (vvIBDV). By application of in situ PCR technique, the probes were evaluated as a marker of the gene and to subsequently detect the presence of the virus. The technique was carried out on tissues of organs collected at 24, 48, 72, 96 and 120 hours post-inoculation (pi). The virus was detected in all samples at all times of sampling. The virus was not detected in all samples from the control group. It was concluded that this study has successfully developed an in situ PCR technique for detection of vvIBDV by formation of specific probes complementary to VP2 gene.
Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is the pathogen that causes Japanese encephalitis (JE) in humans and horses. Lethality of the virus was reported to be between 20-30%, of which, 30-50% of the JE survivors develop neurological and psychiatric sequelae. Attributed to the low effectiveness of current therapeutic approaches against JEV, vaccination remains the only effective approach to prevent the viral infection. Currently, live-attenuated and chimeric-live vaccines are widely used worldwide but these vaccines pose a risk of virulence restoration. Therefore, continuing development of JE vaccines with higher safety profiles and better protective efficacies is urgently needed. In this study, the Macrobrachium rosenbergii nodavirus (MrNV) capsid protein (CP) fused with the domain III of JEV envelope protein (JEV-DIII) was produced in Escherichia coli. The fusion protein (MrNV-CPJEV-DIII) assembled into virus-like particles (VLPs) with a diameter of approximately 18 nm. The BALB/c mice injected with the VLPs alone or in the presence of alum successfully elicited the production of anti-JEV-DIII antibody, with titers significantly higher than that in mice immunized with IMOJEV, a commercially available vaccine. Immunophenotyping showed that the MrNV-CPJEV-DIII supplemented with alum triggered proliferation of cytotoxic T-lymphocytes, macrophages, and natural killer (NK) cells. Additionally, cytokine profiles of the immunized mice revealed activities of cytotoxic T-lymphocytes, macrophages, and NK cells, indicating the activation of adaptive cellular and innate immune responses mediated by MrNV-CPJEV-DIII VLPs. Induction of innate, humoral, and cellular immune responses by the MrNV-CPJEV-DIII VLPs suggest that the chimeric protein is a promising JEV vaccine candidate.
Bioinformatic analysis was used to predict antigenic B-cell and T-cell epitopes within the S1 glycoprotein of M41 and CR88 IBV strains. A conserved linear B-cell epitope peptide, YTSNETTDVTS(175-185), was identified in M41 IBV strains while three such epitopes types namely, VSNASPNSGGVD(279-290), HPKCNFRPENI(328-338), and NETNNAGSVSDCTAGT(54-69), were predicted in CR88 IBV strains. Analysis of MHCI binding peptides in M41 IBV strains revealed the presence of 15 antigenic peptides out of which 12 were highly conserved in 96-100% of the total M41 strains analysed. Interestingly three of these peptides, GGPITYKVM(208), WFNSLSVSI(356), and YLADAGLAI(472), relatively had high antigenicity index (>1.0). On the other hand, 11 MHCI binding epitope peptides were identified in CR88 IBV strains. Of these, five peptides were found to be highly conserved with a range between 90% and 97%. However, WFNSLSVSL(358), SYNISAASV(88), and YNISAASVA(89) peptides comparably showed high antigenicity scores (>1.0). Combination of antigenic B-cells and T-cells peptides that are conserved across many strains as approach to evoke humoral and CTL immune response will potentially lead to a broad-based vaccine that could reduce the challenges in using live attenuated vaccine technology in the control of IBV infection in poultry.
A serological survey on antibodies against feline coronavirus (FCo V) was conducted in four catteries in Klang Valley, Selangor, Malaysia. A total number of 24 cats of various breeds, ages and gender were randomly sampled from each cattery. The level of antibody titers were tested using a dot blot ELISA test kit ImmunofCombʳ, All cats showed a previous exposure to FeCo V. All the cats (100%) sampled from the catteries are infected with the virus. Approximately 42% and 58% of the sampled cats exhibited medium and high positive antibodies titers against FeCoY, respectively. This is the first study conducted in Malaysia to gauge the status of FeCo V antibody titer in cats.
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